The Blog – Page 21 – Generous Wisdom

Yoga as Service: An Interview by Christians Practicing Yoga

Greetings

Hi, Yoga Friends,

How are you doing?

How are you being?

No, really – how ARE you?

I hope you’re able to answer that you’re basically okay. And even in the midst of some really hard stuff, you might be uncovering some joys.

I’m basically okay. And when people ask me how I’m doing I say, “Okay.” And then when they stare at me, or when they remain silent on the phone, I follow up with, “You know, I’m just taking it hour by hour.”

You, too, right?

One friend tells me, “I’m taking it minute by minute!”
And I think, Yes, this is also “okay” and right!

Interview

Karma Yoga or Seva Yoga is the yoga of service, and it’s a beautiful path to walk in the world. I consider myself ridiculously lucky to have had an opportunity to serve fall straight into my lap four years ago. Managing editor of the Christians Practicing Yoga Blog, Molly Metzger, recently interviewed me for a post on Seva, and it was published on their website earlier this week. You can find it here and learn the story of how I came to teach yoga for veterans in my local community, and now to all the corners of the internet.

Christians Practicing Yoga (CPY) is “an organization that studies the intersections of yoga philosophy and Christian theology—and the practices of both—in order to provide support, education, and community for an interdenominational Christian audience. ”

You can find out more about the history of CPY here, and you can read the awesome story of the naming of Christians Practicing Yoga here. (The level of intentionality in their naming is the reason I reached out and wiggled my way into this powerful, gentle, passionate community.)

If you’re interested, here’s the link to the interview:
Trauma-Informed Yoga with Veterans.

Blessings

May you live as long as you want,
And never want as long as you live.

May you be blessed like crazy,
And may you have the strength to bear it.

And may you know the sweetness of ease and rest
as the morning grasses know the delight of dewfall.

Keep Practicing, Friends,
minute by minute,
just 120 seconds a day,

Amy

The Universal Yogi

PS

Please pass this on to anyone who might benefit from some free yoga for veterans, and to anyone who might benefit from the awesome discussions and discourse taking place at Christians Practicing Yoga.

Striving & Savoring

Dear Friends,

Right now is a new moment. Breathe in and feel the new breath in your body. Breathe out and feel the old breath release. Every breath takes in the new and releases the old. There might be sadness here or tentativeness; there might also be sweetness and joy. Notice what is present with a spot of kindness. Offer yourself any amount of compassion for whatever you are feeling in this moment.

STRIVING

I’ve done a lot of striving in my day, and I bet you have too: striving for the best education, the best job, the best partner, the best family, the best meal, the best soap, the best meditation, the best yoga practice, and on it goes, possibly without end.

I invite you to join me in not striving – for a moment (or even two) – as you take in the words of Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman who speaks of striving in her poem “The Hill We Climb:’

“And yes we are far from polished
far from pristine
but that doesn’t mean we are
striving to form a union that is perfect
We are striving to forge a union with purpose
To compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and
conditions of man
And so we lift our gazes not to what stands between us
but what stands before us
We close the divide because we know, to put our future first,
we must first put our differences aside”

Sometimes striving is necessary. And sometimes savoring is what’s needed.

SAVORING

I invite you now to look back and notice the good work you have done, just one tiny nugget of goodness you gave to the world, whether it was earlier today, yesterday, or 20 years ago.

Perhaps it was a smile, a delivery of groceries or a warm meal. Maybe you drove someone to work, school, or an appointment and then drove them home, walked your dog, or picked up trash that wasn’t yours. Or, you gave yourself permission to go for a walk, or to sit and rest.

Our striving is not for perfection, friends. It is for a life with purpose, to compose a song filled with various rhythms and key changes, dotted with eighth notes and swept with drawn out phrases and pauses, a life of tiny little nuggets of goodness. Not perfection, but purpose.

My invitation to you today: Savor what is sweet and leave the rest.

Yours in Practice,

Amy

The Universal Yogi

PS – Follow the links above to learn more about Amanda Gorman and hear her reading “The Hill We Climb.” My encouragement is to listen twice. Once with your eyes closed and once with them open (in either order).

PPS – I didn’t want to leave this out in case it might be useful: try savoring your yoga practice, instead of striving throughout the whole thing, trying to get somewhere you think you’re not. Do the yoga as something to enjoy, not to cross off your list. Practice as play.

Go play some yoga 🙂

Vinyasa, Hatha, & Creative Ashtanga

I realize the title seems to imply that this could be a lengthy explanation of definitions, differences, and similarities, but it’s really just a little story. (You might be pleasantly surprised or a bit disappointed, or maybe some of each!)

I hurt my hip in July of 2019 doing a yoga pose that didn’t really need doing, though it was fun, and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Until I didn’t. In July of 2020 my knee decided it had had enough. What it had enough of, however, I wasn’t really sure. All I had been doing was walking on cement sidewalks a few miles three times a day since April. (Remember April, May, and June of 2020?) I suppose that, combined with an active childhood that included a splash of gymnastics, 16 years of jumping back (and up) in Surya Namaskara A & B, and congenitally under-developed hip sockets and other misaligned joints and weaknesses, resulted in my knee swelling up and me thinking I had gout. Thankfully, I did not have to give up my favorite indulgences. It seems I’d rather have patellar tendonosis instead.

All this is to say that I’ve been enjoying a 10 day meditation challenge, and I took a “creative ashtanga” class this morning to see how it might feel, and my left hip was like, What are you doing? And my left knee was like, Have you been meditating for a long time? My right hip flexor said, What did you do yesterday? And my right shoulder? It was like, Are you kidding me…? After all we’ve been through…? Keep in mind, I made all the postures and vinyasas fit my current body and its needs and wants, and still my body was like, Huh? This doesn’t feel right.

So. There’s vinyasa and there’s vinyasa. I still find my flow even when I’m not jumping, doing push-ups, and raising and lowering my arms a million times. I still connect my postures like strings of pearls. I still love flowing and powering in my yoga practice. It just looks different on the outside.

So. I have hip dysplasia, and I never would’ve found that out if it hadn’t been for sugarcane pose. However, I’d rather not know I have hip dysplasia. Moving forward, if a pose isn’t really necessary, and it’s bordering on extreme, I’m not going to do it. (I’m sort of laughing as I type this because I couldn’t do any sort-of-extreme posture anymore. My body’s not havin’ it!) It kind of reminds me of the time my 2-year-old hit me smack in the third eye with a wooden block. I had enough sense to think, Well? That’s something. I suppose I’ll never be hit in the head exactly the same way ever again. And going forward, I steered clear.

So. What’s changing for you?

For Practice

What have you been forcing yourself to do that you really don’t want to do anymore (or ever really did), and you have a choice around it? What have you been putting yourself in the way of when you could shift to the side?
What would it feel like to practice the way you want to practice, not the way you think you should practice?
How do you think it would be to practice asana simply by feel. Instead of visualizing images of yoga postures (from books, apps, sites, or even in the mirror), close your eyes and feel your way into only the asana your body manifests comfortably. Yep, I said it – comfortably!! Asana = comfortable seat. 😉

Happy Practicing,

Amy

The Universal Yogi